A Study of Life

I believe that my favorite part about Man with a Movie Camera was its constantly fast-forwarded movement. I'm not sure what the technical film term for that is, possibly accelerated... film? Anyway, it really emphasized how busy human lives are, how much we accomplish in a day at a time. I loved watching the camera man literally hustle and bustle from place to place, climbing steep ladders to the tops of buildings, floating above a dam, walking on beams hundreds of feet above the ground. He would stop at nothing to get his footage, even standing on the edge of a moving car. His deliberate efforts at capturing every day events revealed to me how miraculous and wonderful they were. And yet, at certain moments when the camera focused on one place for an extended time, slowed to slow-motion action, or stopped in complete still shots, I was even more amazed. The part when he filmed the women riding in a buggy and conversing as they took notice of him was so inspiring, simply because the audience was given time to analyze human reactions and appreciate the beauty of communication and body language. My favorite part would have to be the horse pulling the buggy, though. When his motion slowed, as a result of film editing, and he turned to look back at the camera man, my breath was taken away. The curious, yet noble way the horse craned his head; his mane glistening in the sun and waving in the wind; and his body's powerfully rhythmic manner of moving, was majestic in itself. Finally the film froze, just for enough of a moment to appreciate something that usually happens so fast, it cannot be absorbed. Maybe it's just me and my love of horses, but that horse taking notice of the filmmaker and turning to look at him was so beautiful! As for the repetition of the music, I believe that Michael Nyman did this to reinforce the realistic aspect of the film. The movie documented many important aspects of life: birth, working, socializing, having fun, exercising...and these are not things that happen once in our lives. Life is full of repetition, and cycles. When I recognized music from the beginning of the movie playing again in the middle of it, it gave me a comforting, familiar feeling, as though I had just returned home from school. It reminded me that Man with a Movie Camera is not just a film, it is a study of life.